Gropius House - Lincoln 3.95

The Gropius House was the family residence of noted architect Walter Gropius at 68 Baker Bridge Road, Lincoln, Massachusetts. It is now a historic house museum, owned by Historic New England, and is open to the public. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2000 for its association with Gropius, an influential teacher and leader of Modernist philosophy of architecture. The house includes a collection of Bauhaus-related materials that is unparalleled outside Germany.HistoryAs the first director of the Bauhaus, Gropius was concerned with combining useful modern technologies with consumer need, while placing equal emphasis on architectural integrity and decorative arts.Gropius and his family came to the United States after a three-year stay in London, where they had moved to avoid the Nazi regime. Gropius went to Massachusetts to accept a teaching position at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. Fellow architect and prominent Boston figure Henry Shepley convinced philanthropist Helen Storrow to provide the land and fund both the designing and building process of a home. He designed the home in 1937 and it was built with local builder Casper J. Jenney in 1938. Gropius used his new home as a showcase for his Harvard students as well as an example of modernist landscape architecture in America. He chose the area because of its proximity to Concord Academy which his daughter, Ati, was going to attend. It remained Gropius's home from 1938 until his death in 1969.